Imagination Toddler Lap Time, 7/26/13

Imagination Toddler Lap Time, 7/26/13

I really  think we should have stopped offering this story time at the beginning of the summer, as it is a weekly struggle to get an audience. Two kids and their moms came this week, but they were friends who knew each other, and I could tell they were annoyed at coming to a story time that was basically just like all their normal play dates. When we make changes to our schedule at the end of August, this story time will not continue. 

Book: I'm Going on a Dragon Hunt by Maurice Jones

I wasn't sure how they would like this book, but they seemed really drawn to it, and the little boy got really excited and pointed when the dragon appeared.

Song with Puppet: My Mother's a Dragon

I was afraid the puppet might seem scary, so I let the kids see me put it on my hand and pointed out how silly he looked, rather than scary.  I also allowed both kids to pet the dragon after we sang the song.

Book: My Garden by Kevin Henkes

The kids were not as into this book, but the moms liked it.

Flannel Board Rhyme: My Garden

The kids really liked this. They didn't really know how to count yet, but the fun of it was really just looking at the flowers as I put them up and took them down.  

Book: The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle 

The kids liked this book, especially the pages about the red crocodile and the pink rabbit. 

Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun

Activities with Flowers: 

• Flowers Up, Flowers Down 
• There's a Little Flower Growing on My Head

I use the same hello and goodbye songs at almost every session. Click here for the tunes and words. For descriptions of each of my story times, click here.

Imagination Drop-In Story Time, 7/26/13

 

Imagination (Fantasy) Drop-In Story Time, 7/26/13

My manager addressed the group at the start of story time asking them to please be quiet during my presentation. They managed to keep themselves under control for both books, but once I brought out the ukulele, they pretty much lost focus. 

Book: King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood and Don Wood
This is probably the book I read aloud  the best in my entire repertoire. The kids like the repetition and the illustrations. I love imagining the king's silly, jovial voice.

Flannel Board: Royal Crowns
We sang the usual "The king wore his orange crown all day long" then repeated the song with a slightly different twist as the figures left the board:

The king took off his orange crown, orange crown, orange crown
The king took off his orange crown and went to sleep.

I asked the kids to help me name the colors and to help name the people (king, queen, princess, and prince) as we removed them.

Rhyme: Fierce is the Dragon

Book: The Foggy Foggy Forest by Nick Sharratt
We had a good number of preschoolers at this story time, and they were eager to guess what each shadow represented. One little girl guessed the witch correctly. The ogre doing yoga usually gets a bigger reaction, but this is a tough crowd.

Rhyme: One is a Giant  

Songs with Ukulele: 

• Fairy Dance
  This was the best of the songs we did today. I probably could have played all six verses I came up with several more times, except that I got sick of it after a while.
• Do You Know the Muffin Man?
  For future reference, this group does not know the muffin man.
• Itsy Bitsy Spider
• You Are My Sunshine
• ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep

I use the same hello and goodbye songs at almost every session. Click here for the tunes and words. For descriptions of each of my story times, click here.

Imagination Preschool Story Time, 7/25/13

 Imagination Preschool Story Time, 7/25/13

This was one of the all-time best preschool story times.  There about 9 kids, two of whom were older siblings of preschoolers, and one of whom was a rising first grader. We got so into the three books we did read that we didn't read some of the others I had pulled out, but the kids had a blast.

Book: Dream Friends by You Byun
I have been looking forward to sharing this book, and this group was the perfect audience. They loved the illustrations, which is my favorite part of the story, and they thought the dream friend looked like a polar bear or a cat. I was worried the story itself would be too strange for  them, but they got right into it, and clapped loudly at the end.

Flannel Board Story: Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty
I am so glad I thought to adapt this to the flannel board. It worked so, so well, and I learned that I am actually really good at telling stories if I practice them right before I perform. I didn't memorize the text word for word, but I made sure to hit the important points, and after story time, we looked at the book and some of the kids were able to tell me the story based on what we had done on the flannel board. I think this is my most successful flannel board of all time.

Book: Pretend You’re A Cat by Jean Marzollo and Jerry Pinkney
I hesitated about this one, but since most of the group was four or five years old, they were eager to act out animal movements, and really good at it as well. I asked them to tell me which animal was on each page, then they moved like that animal while I read the text. When it was time to change animals, I let them know they had to look at the book to find out what to do next which kept them engaged in the fun, but also kept the action from getting too chaotic. 

Book: Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
I was surprised by how much they truly loved this book. They picked up on the "not a box" gimmick right away and kept calling out, "But it's not a box, Miss Katie!" They got a kick out of what the rabbit turned his box into, and they were eager to get on with the business of imagining their own boxes.

Coloring Page: "It's Not a Box!" (page 4 in the HarperCollins Not a Box Event Kit)
This was the perfect activity for this group. They got really into it, and each child who spoke to me was eager to tell me a long narrative explaining the story of his or her rabbit's boxes. It was one of the best coloring activities we have ever done.

I use the same hello and goodbye songs at almost every session. Click here for the tunes and words. For descriptions of each of my story times, click here.

Daycare Outreach Round-up, July 10 & 17

For July, the theme at the daycare centers was the rainforest. This was not an easy theme for which to find books, but with some help from my Flannel Friday colleagues and a few inter-library loan requests I was able to put together a nice series of story times. I will return to the centers twice more in August, when the theme will be camping.

Week 3 (Wednesday, July 17)

Group 1A @ 10:00 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Song: These Are My Glasses 
Rhyme: Five Little Parrots 
Books: Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhyme, If You’re Happy and You Know It, Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, said the Sloth 
Notes: Normally, I see two classes together at 10:00, but the room we normally use wasn't available until 10:30, so I visited each group in its classroom for 15 minutes. This group has the most receptive kids in it, so they wound up doing a few more activities than their counterparts in the other classroom. 

Group 1B @ 10:15 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Song: These Are My Glasses 
Books: Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhyme, If You’re Happy and You Know It 
Notes:  The favorite book in this room was If You're Happy and You Know It. This session seemed to run slightly shorter; I think the clock may have been fast. 

Group 2 @ 10:30 a.m. (Ages 4-5)
Songs: If You’d Like to Read a Book,  Visor, Tee-shirt, Shorts and Shoes, These Are My Glasses 
Rhyme: Walking through the Rainforest 
Books: The Umbrella, Where’s My Mom?, Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhymes
 Notes: This group is always the most talkative, because they're the oldest, so they had lots to say about the illustrations in each book. The Umbrella was kind of a flop, but they laughed a lot during Where's My Mom?

Group 3 @ 11:00 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Song: The More We Read Together 
Rhyme: Five Little Parrots 
Books: A Walk in the Rainforest, If You’re Happy and You Know It, Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, said the Sloth 
Notes: This group is the youngest and busiest, so it's hard to keep their attention. They did well during A Walk in the Rainforest, but everything else we did lost them quickly. 

Group 4 @ 11:30 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Song: These Are My Glasses 
Books: Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhyme, If You’re Happy and You Know It, Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, said the Sloth 
Notes: This group is always very chatty, and this was no exception. They liked If You're Happy and You Know It the best of all the books. They also asked if we could keep reading instead of singing!



Week Four (Wednesday, July 24)

Group 1 @ 10:00 (Ages 2-3)
Songs: Hands Up High, Fly Like a Butterfly,  One Little Finger, Five Little Monkeys, These Are My Glasses,The More We Read Together 
Books: Way Up High in a Tall Green Tree, Jungle Day, Ten Naughty Little Monkeys
Notes: This group got a full 30-minute story time, and they loved everything. They are such a joy to visit because their teachers are enthusiastic and the kids are great at following directions and doing the motions for various songs.

Group 2 @ 10:30 (Ages 4-5)
Songs: Visor, Tee-shirt, Shorts and Shoes, These Are My Glasses 
Books: Welcome to the Green House, Way Up High in a Tall Green Tree, Ten Naughty Little Monkeys 
Notes: I was so surprised by how well these kids responded to Welcome to the Green House. We spent the most time on that book. Ten Naughty Little Monkeys wasn't in my original plans, but I'm glad I decided to read it. They loved it!

Group 3 @ 11:00 (Ages 2-3) 
Notes: This group wasn't in their room when I arrived, and they never showed up! 

Group 4 @ 11:30 (Ages 2-3)
Songs: Hands Up High, These Are My Glasses 
Books: Way Up High in a Tall Green Tree, Ten Naughty Little Monkeys, Jungle Day 
Notes: This group's session always gets rushed because the teachers put out the kids' lunches while I'm reading and the kids get nervous they're going to miss lunch. They loved these books, though, and they remembered These Are My Glasses from a previous visit.